Detailed Lesson Preparation Guide

Elementary Education
Name: Morgan McEntire

Title: Nerdy Birdy Read-aloud

Grade: 1st grade

Concept/Topic: Classroom Community

Time Needed: 20-25 minutes

Note: A detailed lesson plan is specific enough for another teacher to read and teach effectively.
There should not be any question regarding what to do or how to do it.

Backward Design Approach: Where are you going with your students?
Identify Desired Results/Learning Outcome/Essential Question:

Through reading Nerdy Birdy, I want the students to have a better sense of what Classroom
Community looks like. By doing this, they should be able to recognize that having a diverse
group of friends is beneficial. Students will be able to identify key details. Students will be able
to retell the lesson learned

Ensuring Lesson supports district and state goals

NCSCOS Standards:
ELA
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text
Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understandings of their
central message or lesson
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, settings, and
events
Social studies
Understand the diversity of people in the local community
Use literature to help people understand diverse cultures
Understand the importance of rules
Summarize various ways in which conflicts can be solved in homes,
schools, classrooms, and communities

Assessment Plan:
How will you know if the objectives/desired results have been met? What will you see and/or hear that
is evidence of student understanding? How will you know that students really understand the identified
Big Ideas?

Through my read aloud, I will ask students key details about the story. As I am reading, I will ask them
what they predict is going to happen or key questions about the story in order for them to understand
the theme of the story, which is about friendship. After reading the story, I will also have a discussion
with the students about what it means to be a good friend. Hopefully, they will have answers such as
friends need to be inclusive or they need to take care of each other. Also, have them give you qualities
about what makes a good friend. Through this, I want the students to have a better sense of what
community looks like. Then, the teacher can assess the students through an activity. This activity is
making a friendship chain where the students will write down certain attributes that make a good
friend, and how they should behave.

Meeting the student where they are:

Prior Knowledge/Connections:
What can target students be expected to know and/or understand about the concept/topic? How does
this lesson connect with other things that students may have learning or experienced? How will you help
students to make the connections between what they already know and what they will be learning in this
lesson?

In a previous lesson, my mentor teacher had the students create their own puzzle pieces. With each of
their own, they would color them and make them unique to their own design. Then, they put all the
puzzle pieces together and made a heart. The point of that lesson was for classroom community and
knowing that there is diversity within a community. My lesson will be similar to this, except I will be
focusing on the friendship aspect of community.

Lesson Introduction/Hook:
How will you focus, excite, engage, and/or elicit knowledge as you introduce this lesson? Think of ways
you can appeal to student interest and cause students to be excited about what they will be learning
about.

Before reading the book, I will do a picture walk with the students in order to gain their interest in the
book. After that, I plan on reading the book to them as I ask them questions along the way. Through this
book, they will start to learn more about classroom community, diversity, and friendship.

Heart of the Lesson/Learning Plans

Differentiation/Same-ation:
How does my ONE lesson ensure engagement for all students? What is it about the presentation and
content of the lesson that makes it accessible to all students? This should be integral to the lesson and
not simply last minute additions or different work for separate groups. All students should be engaged
and a goal of mastery should be in place for all.

- When having our discussion about what it means to be a friend, I will write down the attributes
that they say so that students can go back and use some of them when they are making their
friendship chains
- I plan on assisting the students who need help in taping their friendship chains.
- Using turn-and-talk during the discussion time for students who do not like sharing their
answers out loud

Lesson Development:
Provide a detailed description of how the lesson will progress. What will you do as the teacher? This
should be a detailed step by step account of how a lesson unfolds from beginning to end.
I do part of the lesson:
1. Have the students come to the carpet for a read aloud.
 2. Before reading Nerdy Birdy, do a picture walk with the students.
3. Stop at certain points of the story to ask questions or have the students predict what is going to
happen. (Also make sure to point out text features in the story since this is something that they
are currently learning).
a. Text features on pg.6,7,12.13,16,17,24,30,31 (these pages uses captions)
b. Make a prediction on what is going to happen on pg. 23, 27
c. Comment on why do you think eagle, cardinal, and robin did not want to be friends with
nerdy birdy?
d. Comment on why did the nerdy birdies not want to be friends with vulture?
4. After reading the book, ask the students why do you think nerdy birdy decided to be friends
with vulture?
a. Follow up with what do nerdy birdy and vulture have in common?
We do part of the lesson:
1. Keep the students at the carpet, and begin a discussion with the students about classroom
community.
2. Begin with asking, What does it look like to be a good friend? or How can we show what it
means to be friends with someone?
3. First, have the students turn-and-talk so that they can have time to think and share with each
other.
4. After that, call on some students and have them share with the class.
5. As they share, write down some of the characteristics that they mention.
6. After that, ask the students What can we learn from this story?
You do part of the lesson
1. After answering these questions, explain to the students that they will be making a friendship
chain.
2. Each student will get a strip of paper, and will have to write either a sentence or a word about
what makes a good friend.
3. They can come up with some new ones on their own, or they can use one of the descriptions
that I wrote down.
4. Explain that once all the chains are together, it will demonstrate how each student is part of this
community and they need each other.
5. After explaining, have them do back to their seats so that they can do the activity.
6. Once finished, have each student come up so that you can tape their chains together.
Specific Questioning:
Student questioning should be planned ahead of time. Think about your students and their needs. Plan
questions that will challenge all students.

- What makes a good friend?

- Why does nerdy birdy decide to be friends with vulture?
- How did that friendship work?
- What qualities does a person need to be a good friend?

New Vocabulary:
List and define all new vocabulary that students will need to understand in order to have optimal success
with desired learning results. How will you use this vocabulary in the context of the lesson?

- Nerdy
- Friendship
 - Exclusive
- Inclusive
Concluding the Lesson/Closure/Debriefing:
How will you wrap things up and tie together the ideas presented? How will you help students make
meaning from their experiences?

To close the lesson, students will create a classroom friendship chain. Each chain will have a quality on
what makes a good friend. Once we tape all the chains together, make sure to let the students know
that when linking all the chains together, they are showing what makes a good friend. Friends build
community together.

Materials/Resources:
List everything that is needed to deliver the lesson. Cite any materials that you used in crafting the
lesson. Be specific and review this as you rehearse.

- The book Nerdy Birdy

- 20 strips of colored paper
- tape
- chart paper (so that you can write characteristics of what makes a good friend)

Teaching Behavior Focus:

What is the goal for my teaching behavior and/or actions? See TBF List for suggestions.

For my teacher behavior focus, I want to work on provides clear directions. This is something I want to
make sure I have a mastery in because I struggle in making sure that I am giving all the directions
possible for 1st grade. I am hoping that I will make sure to repeat directions and have the students even
repeat after me what they need to do.

Follow-Up Activities/Parent Involvement

Lesson extensions discussed here. What will student do to utilize this new information? How can you
involve parents in the process of lesson extension in the home?

- We could hang the friendship chain somewhere in the classroom so that students can look back
at it and remember what makes a good friend. Also, a great way for the teacher to remind
students of this activity.
- We can even go further in learning about friendship and talk about classroom community and
what that looks like.
- Have students come up with ways on how to prevent bullying since that is also a theme in the
book that comes up.